Vignette : Chief Mingo
by Gibay
Summary: What does Mingo feel during the fight between Mingo and Daniel ?
1. Chapter 1

**Mingo**

"**Fight Daniel, fight or we both die."**

Daniel holds me down. He holds my right arm, keeps my knife away from his body, while I struggle, holding his knife's arm. He has stopped fighting, he's thinking. There is no way to con your way out of this fight to the death, my friend. You have chosen a Cherokee law. You have to uphold your end of the bargain, my friend. It is my life, or yours – to hold true to my tribe's customs, my tribe's ways.

I see realization dawning in his eyes at last. There is no way you can talk, or wound me and save both our lives. I knew it as soon as the counsel gave me the honor of this fight. My heart shuddered for a moment. I saw it in your eyes. You never believed it. You would be your usual fox, Daniel. Well, this time, you have to face the truth and the reality of your actions.

Daniel, as I fight for my life, even for yours perhaps, I can't help to wonder why.

Why Daniel must you defend this white man? Why do you feel that the white man's laws are better than the red man's laws …

Why is his life so precious to you that you defile my point of view?

I can't think of all your reasons, my friend. Your knife is sharp. You and I fight for our lives. Only one of us will live!

Why Daniel?


	2. Chapter 2

**Daniel**

"**He saved my life"**

As the elders of the counsel speak amongst themselves, I watch him - that man who saved the fawn and me from the quicksand. Sam Hawken hates Indians with a passion. His greatest fear in to die at their hands, I believe. I owe him.

I think they will have Long Feather fighting me; he's young and anxious to prove his worth. I will have to be careful of his pride when I will defeat him. I must promise to bring Sam to Salem for a trial by white men.

Mingo approaches the elders. My friend is carrying a heavy burden since White Cloud's death. I haven't seen him this way in a long time.

I hear them. I hear the elder who's looking Mingo straight in the eyes. I must fight my friend, my brother, to fulfill a debt of honor. I will fight a man who has saved my hide numerous times, who is more my brother today, than mine are; those brothers of mine living as faraway as they do. I grab my rifle, and walk toward the elders and Mingo. I can't let them see how I feel. Mingo will forgive me, I know. I will not dishonor him or his custom; our fight will be legitimate. We'll both rise with bruises, still friends. I trust in him.

I heard Long Feather. My heart sank. How do I let the Cherokee's honor and pride of my friend and his people remains while we fight? I have no intention of killing Mingo, or to let him kill me. I must think fast!

Mingo approaches me, he speaks, says a lot of things, then extends his hand to me. I see his eyes. He intends to fight me to death. He will not surrender. Mingo will not let anything stand in the way of his Cherokee blood. I have to shake his hand. He knows me too well.

He's my brother.


	3. Chapter 3

**Mingo**

**_Daniel there is a part of me that's been too long neglected _**

**_and _**

**_that's the part I must think with now._**

_Daniel:"Think or feel?"_

_Mingo: "This is a crime against the Cherokee. You have no right to offer him your protection"_

_Mingo: "Think or feel?" **about the notion of murder in cold blood**_

I do not doubt Daniel's friendship; he has always accepted me. I believe that since we became friends, it was easy to have as much of the white man in me come out as proud as the Cherokee part of me is. Daniel has never judged my choice and decision. He always introduced me as his friend. Just a man, is what I am in his eyes. But there is part of my legacy that I shrug away at times; some customs of my tribe that I don't abide with. I chose to be Cherokee and to live my life this way. My clothes, my hair, my adornment, all of me, are Cherokee. But I am also a white man, and know much about the life of the white men.

I will never doubt Daniel's friendship. However, I cannot continue to neglect the cry inside, the warring part of me is winning.

I am Cherokee. My blood wants justice, the Cherokee way.

"

Daniel: "You taken quite a big load on your shoulder. I don't know what I'd do if I were in your place"

Mingo said "I do" and then he left.

When White Cloud laid on his deathbed and handed me the mantel of chief hood, I was ceased with a deep fear. He placed his dying hope for peace on my shoulders, on my mixed blood. I wondered how the warriors would see me, as their leader.

This Cherokee blood in my veins is strong. But at times, I let all that I know about being white, overshadow and overwhelm the legacy of my mother's customs and cultures.

Since Daniel Boone extended his hand of friendship, as he saved my life, I have been half-white and half-Cherokee.

White Cloud made sure that I would remember who I am.

That load on my shoulder, as Daniel called it, is not such a burden. It allowed me to rise above the white man in me. I know what I need to do. This white murderer will face Cherokee justice. Cherokee justice is swift and hard.

I know.


	4. Chapter 4

**Daniel**

"_**Like I said, he's a friend!"**_

_Mingo has a knife at his throat_

_Mingo: "Chief White Cloud has been murdered by this friend of yours"._

_Sam: "If I was to kill me an Indian, it be face to face"_

Sam saved my life. He feed me, he laughed with me, and he shared a love of forest and stream and hunting with me. It's obvious, he hates Indians. He nearly killed Mingo, my brother. I have not often seen Mingo that angry; the knife at his throat, his own knife, had a lot to do with it. The murder of his chief, a man of peace, has left him bitter. Mingo has always handled the insults and the hate of many others with an ease I could never fathom. He has known fears, I remember but the hate of the white men has never left him in the state he is in now. Mingo is my brother and my friend. My family is safe with him, like with no other. He is truly my friend.

But I have a debt of honour with Sam Hawkens.

Can I have two friends hating each other so much?

Can I ever see a day where Mingo, where all Indians, could live with white men who would not hate them so much.


	5. Chapter 5

**Mingo**

"_**You might think a little differently if you had a knife at your throat!"**_

Daniel to Sam about friendship: "I am. So is the man you're about to use that knife on."

Daniel to Mingo about the events: "Mingo, you and me take a little walk."

Daniel allows this man much leeway. I was a few seconds from being killed by my own knife. I will trust Daniel with my life, until my last breath. But still, the hate in this friend of his, for my kind, for the color of my skin, I see and feel but Daniel is blind to it.

Daniel thinks I am too emotionally involved in the murder of White Cloud. He believes that my skin, for once, doesn't allow me to act or think in a reasonable fashion. The man saved his life. He cannot believe he would murder an Indian. Will Daniel ever see this hate or feel it perhaps? Because he is unable to hate my people simply for their color or their customs, he cannot understand this man's hate. Daniel befriended him out of a sense of duty.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's __notes: written during the month of August 2007; I compared a lot of notes and input between the French taped version and the English DVD version. _

_Death__s: Chief White Cloud, 3 Shawnee warriors, Sam Hawkens._

_Heavy notion of racism and hatred. Notion of unattainable justice for the murder of an Indian by a white man._

_Rating for violence, hatred and racism: M for Mature._

_Proofed By Suzy with thanks. All the views in this vignette are mine, and only mine. Suzy only proofed the English language, she didn't filter or correct the content._


End file.
